Fairies and a Croc
by GojiGrimlockSaurus
Summary: Rex Atticus, an anthro Nile crocodile, ran away from his home island due to his horrible and tragic past. He landed on Fiore after destroying a dark guild in another country. He meets up with Team Natsu and Master Makarov who gives him his chance for redemption by joining Fairy Tail. Can he redeem himself with their help or will his past drown him in the darkness within his soul?
1. Chapter 1

**Fairies and a Croc**

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"Hey, you!" – human dialogue

"_**ROOOAAAARRR"**_ – animal/monster roars, grunts, screeches

"**Dazzling Blaze of the Fire Dragon!"** – magic spells

_What on earth?_ – thoughts/dreams/memories

_**Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima and Weekly Shonen Magazine**_

_**I only own my OCs, Rex Atticus the Crocodile and Aetos Abraham Theocedric**_

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**Chapter 1: Fairy Tail**

Somewhere in the East Forest situated east of Magnolia, an enormous shadow thundered in its casual walk on a vegetation-covered dirt road. The figure walked and walked until it reached a slow flowing stream that trailed into a vast lake nearby. The being sat down by the lake with its meaty lizard-like tail relaxed and the enormous giant crouched on its bird-like legs, placed its humongous hands on the ground and lowered its triangular head and toothy snout to the edge of the lake to drink its water after exhaustive weeks of traveling. The creature drank to its heart content as it was tired and exhausted from such a long journey away from something. Then it sat down and rested his arms behind his horned head and against a tree bark to rest a bit. The thing knew, however, that unless it had something to eat, it won't be able to rest easy on an empty stomach. So after a few minutes of taking a series of long deep breaths, the creature heaved its enormous mass off the ground. All of its senses were now on full alert as it tried to pick up on sounds and smells of potential prey in the forest.

The reptilian creature heard some peculiar sounds that sounded like aggressive and shouting voices echoing through the forest. Then sounds of explosions and magic echoed bringing some familiarity to the creature. Curious, the animal fast walked towards the sources of the sounds and its instinct to check them out led him to the edge of the tree line that bordered the shoreline of the lake a few miles away from the river. It steadily approached the bushes by stepping as lightly as possible without trying to make too much noise that would alert its potential prey. It peered its sallow slit eyes out and they were greeted with a sight it was not expecting to see.

A fight was ensuing at the edge of the reed-covered shoreline of the lake. A large crowd of humans were surrounding a smaller group of three other humans with various medieval weapons that includes mostly swords and axes. The former were a gang of thugs that were hounding on the trio of these strange looking people. The first member of the three was a spiky pink-haired young man wearing a white scarf that bear resemblance to lizard scales, an open, sleeveless dark vest that showed off his well-muscled arms, chest, and abdomen, and huge baggy pants. The man was punching the thugs with his fists emblazed in fire without being burned himself. The second member was that of a young blonde woman with her long hair pulled into a pony tail and she wore a white, sleeveless shirt with a blue cross in the middle, and a blue skirt. On her hip, she carried a long whip and a tiny satchel that contains several gold keys and silver keys. The last member of this strange trio was a blue cat that walked upright on its two hind legs and carried a green knapsack on its back. The flying feline was currently hovering head-height thanks to the white wings sprouting from its back and it appeared to be armed with a swordfish of sorts.

The three were currently in a loose triangle and they weren't too worried about the situation they were in as they kept destroying the robbers that tried to attack them from every angle.

"Hold still you pink-haired punk!" one of the thugs shouted angrily as he kept trying to land a hit on the young man with his hammer without any success with the mage dodging him easily.

"Oh yeah?! We gave you your chance to surrender peacefully and settle this the easy way, but…" the pink-haired guy said as he imbued his right fist in burning fire. "You went with the _very_ hard way! I specialize in beating the crap out of you when you go that route, Fairy Tail style. Either way, we are still paid to bring you into custody."

"What makes you think you have a chance against us? You are outnumbered 30 to 3! Besides, we ain't gonna lose to a bunch of kids and a kitten!" one thug sneered.

"You lowlifes are so used to harassing unfortunate travelers so much that you've forgotten how it is a bad idea to face the wizards of Fairy Tail!" said the blonde-haired girl as she pulled out a golden axe-shaped key.

"Aye! You guys need to learn social manners big time in jail!" said the diminutive blue cat still pointing the swordfish at any thug daring to get close to him.

The green sallow snake-like eyes glowing in the cloaked shade of the trees and shrubbery widened in surprise of the flying cat that just spoke as if it was the first time it had heard such a creature talk.

"Enough! Take them down, now!" one of robbers shouted as he unsheathed his sword and charged at the pink-haired guy, who only grinned in excitement.

"Now I am all fired up!" he pulled his flaming fist and launched it forward in one of his devastating spells, **"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"**

The flames expanded and then exploded when the fist shattered the blade and hit the thug spot-on in the face. The bad guy was rendered unconscious with a pink, steaming bump on his cheek. The pink-haired guy heaved his chest out, taking a huge deep of air before saying his most famous enchantment.

"**Fire Dragon Roar!"** a huge torrent of fire blasted out of his mouth and scorched a dozen more of the robbers into charred semi-conscious heaps.

The beast hiding in the forest was amazed in awe of the fight. Never before had it seen such a power display in one so young. It couldn't help but get closer to have a better view of the confrontation. However, it realized that it couldn't be seen in plain sight and attract unwanted attention to itself. Looking around, it noticed that there was a riverbank far away enough from the battle to swim into the lake unnoticed. The animal then quickly put its hat into a long waterproof dry bag that stored other valuables in it. It slung the strap of the bag onto its thick neck before quietly submerging into the water to not disturb the fight. Fortunately, the lake was large and deep enough to hide such a gigantic animal like it, enabling it to do what most creatures were unable to do when in the water. It swam until it reached several yards away from the shore where the magic battle was taking place and it subtly emerge its head partially out of the water, revealing only the nose and the slit eyes as they are both camouflaged by the lake water. This makes the beast almost invisible to the battling mages and robbers above the water surface as it didn't make any bubbles or ripples to break the surface and give its nearby presence away.

Meanwhile, the remaining portion of the bandits, seeing their fellows knocked out cold by the pink-haired Fire Dragon Slayer, decided to attack the girl, who thrust her key forward.

"**Open, Gate of the Bull: Taurus!"** a cloud of smoke appeared and out of it jumped a 10-foot tall humanoid bull with white skin blotched with black spots, nose ring, a cowbell, and black briefs. He wielded a massive battle axe in his hands.

"_**MOOOO!**_ I know princess Lucy has a hot rockin' body, but you gotta give her some roooomm, ya punkass jerks!" Taurus exclaimed as he swung his axe and sent the offensive thugs flying. The cow and Lucy high-fived each other.

"That's awesome, Taurus!" Lucy said, "now let's finish the rest of them off!"

"You got it, Miss Lucy!" Taurus hefted his battle axe and charged once again at the thugs.

"**Fire Dragon Wing Attack!"** the pink-haired Dragon Slayer shouted as he grabbed at the nearest thug with his hands ablaze and sent him and the other thugs in close proximity flying into the air. Simultaneously, the blue cat was darting around, smacking any unaware bandit on the head with his fish, including one that was about to backstab the Dragon Slayer.

"Thanks for the save, Happy!" said the fire-user after giving a thumbs up to his feline partner.

"Aye, Natsu!"

The creature beneath the lake's surface was further amazed of the whole fight in front of it. It had seen a lot of fights in its lifetime of hunting alone, but this was more than just a fight. Seeing those youngsters fight with audacious spirits and energy reminded it of its younger days. It was so focused on the fight that it almost didn't notice one man, dressed in leather armor and black hooded clothing, sneaking up behind the blonde girl with a poisonous knife in his hand. None of the wizards saw him coming. Normally, the creature would not care to interfere in fights like this and preferred to mind its own business, like going somewhere else quieter to hunt. However, something in its brain told it that it's not right to just sit back, do nothing, and let the girl die. Something that nagged the underwater beast to do something. After seconds, the creature's eyes slit, scrunched in fury, and they started to glow green. Enough was enough! It was tired of doing nothing. It decided to take matters into its own hands, or claws. It lowered its head into the water without causing a ripple and it quietly swam closer to the shore until it was just few feet away from the would-be assassin.

The assassin slowly drew his blade, ready to stab Lucy in the back with the poison and have her slowly die in agonizing pain. Then his gang could take out the moronic Dragon Slayer and the stupid blue cat without any more trouble from this wizard brat. However, as he was about to thrust his knife into the unaware Celestial Spirit wizard, the hooded assassin stepped onto the water oblivious to the fact that he just sealed his own fate because suddenly out of nowhere, a huge splash happened right next to the assassin and the blonde mage. This startled Lucy in the nick of time as she saw her would-be assassin, but what startled her even more was that coming out of the splashing water, an enormous scaly hand armed with a claw cestus of some sort shot up and grabbed the unfortunate assassin by the legs, tripping the man face down into the mud as he lost his knife in the process. The assassin was stunned and hurt by the force of his fall before he was dragged across the shore screaming in terror, causing all the other thugs, Natsu, and Happy to turn their heads at the source of the disturbance in shock. The man clawed his hands into the dirt to stop his body from being dragged underwater by something that was obviously wanting to kill him! But his efforts proved futile as whatever was gripping his legs was too strong for him to outwrestle it and he was dragged into the lake without warning. Lucy's eyes widened in shock as she saw the assassin's hand pop out of the water with his fingers trying to grasp at something as if he was calling for someone to grab him out of the water before it abruptly disappeared into the water.

"Miss Lucy, is your beautiful bod alright?!" Taurus asked out of concern for his master's wellbeing.

"I'm fine. I'm fine! But did you see what I see, Taurus?!" Lucy asked with fear and astonishment in her eyes.

"I saw it, Lucy!" Natsu answered instead of the bull.

"Did you, Natsu? It was like a huge hand that shot out of the lake and dragged the thug in there like he weighed nothing!"

"One thing that disturbed me that it had scales." Natsu noted.

"Scales? You mean as in scales of a lizard?!" Lucy asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah! But they are not exactly lizard scales nor are they really dragon scales. The texture is different." Natsu replied.

"Natsu, you don't mean…?" Happy asked nervously.

The thugs were still in states of shock and disbelief as they could not comprehend what just happened seconds ago. Then two of them went to the edge of the lake to call out to their friend and see if he responded to them. If he did, then they would rescue him from whatever dragged him into the water.

"Hey Robbie! Where are you?!" shouted one thug.

"Yo, where the hell are you?!" exclaimed another thug as he cupped his mouth in his hands to amplify the sound.

There was no response.

"Robbie! Give us a wave or something. You are scaring us here!" one thug shouted anxiously as the fear was starting to get to him.

The other swore in frustration, "Dammnit! What's going on with you, Robbie?!"

Still no response.

Time passed by for seconds and then for minutes as the thugs and Team Natsu were only greeted with an unnerving silence that caused the atmosphere of the swamp to feel creepier. The two robbers were sweating and trembling as they feared the worst had happened for Robbie.

"Robbie. This has to be a joke, right? You are just playing with us like you always do, aren't you?!" the one nervous thug asked.

Nothing.

Nothing. Until blood stained the lake red where Robbie was dragged in. To make matters worse, a dismembered, bloody hand along with a severed head with eyes white and widened in horror floated out onto the red stained water and they were Robbie's. Lucy gasped in horror and covered her mouth with her hands to prevent herself from screaming. The thugs screamed in terror and horror as their worst fears about Robbie were now proven true right in front of them. They stumbled hard on their butts as they crawled back from the bloody horror. The rest of the thugs were also backing off with many of them green-faced because of the sickening sight of their fellow robber. Some of them puked.

Natsu's eyes popped out of their sockets as he was horrified of what happened to the would-be assassin. Happy's face turned sickly green as he was covering his mouth with his cheeks inflated to hold in the lunch that he was on the verge of puking out. Taurus was covering his eyes as the gory sight proved too much for him.

"_**MOOOOO!**_ My eyes! My eyes! They're burning!" Taurus exclaimed.

The two thugs couldn't handle any more of this and decided to run away from the horror scene. However, it proved too little and too late for them as a huge reptilian mass launched out from the water and grabbed one of the two thugs in one swiping move of its left claw. This thug screamed and cursed in profanities at the sight of Robbie's murderer. Then the beast roared as it swiped its enormous right claw down at where the second thief was milliseconds ago. This caused the ground to shatter by impact and tumble him to do the ground before he swiftly put himself on his feet once again to run as fast as possible away from this monster. Shortly after, though, the reptile tail whipped the poor thug by his back with the force of a speeding train and broke it before the man smashed into a tree.

As for the thug in the massive reptile's hand, the beast dropped him and then grabbed him again, this time by both of his legs. It swung the other thug in a circle of dizzying speeds before it slammed him into the ground with such a neck breaking force that caused a sickening crunch from the victim. The thug's ribs were cracked and his lungs were punctured by one of the ribs that fractured and pushed into his lungs from the force of the slam. The thug held his chest in pain and started coughing and hacking out blood from his mouth. He was having a hard time breathing as he was drowning in his own blood. Then what came next quickly ended his life in a flash as the huge animal clamped its gigantic jaws onto his shoulders. Then with the power of its huge neck, the beast shook the screaming man around like a dog with a rag doll, much to everyone's horror. The reptile crunched the man in its jaws, ending the poor thug's life and flung him out. Then it bellowed out a guttural roar that brought chills to everyone within the vicinity.

"_**GGGROOOOAAAAARR!"**_

As it roared, the wide jaws revealed sharp conical fangs that covered in blood and gore of its latest victim. This unnerved many of the thugs, including the shocked Lucy, who had never seen a creature like this before.

The beast was hunched down and so when it stood more upright on its two hind legs, it was truly gigantic. It was around 17 feet tall and 36 feet in length. Massive in width and girth as well it was enormous in height. Its body was all pure muscle, bone, and thick, rugged scales. It had a heavily muscled chest, thick shoulders and massive arms that were studded with bony obsidian spurs that increased in size from the base of the wrists to the elbows and each of the elbows were armed with a large protruding spike. Its enormous hands were armed with five huge, black claws. It had massive neck muscles that make it vaguely resemble a cobra and its head possessed scale-like horns at the back of the head and it was tapered with a long, toothy snout reinforced by strong, large jaw muscles at the lower mandibles. It had green eyes and the head was smaller in proportion to the rest of its body than a normal crocodile. Its legs and feet were vaguely bird-like in appearance with four toes. The legs were slightly longer than the arms. The reptile possessed a long, thick muscular tail that is typical of all crocodiles except that it is armed with thagomizer-like spikes protruding outward from the sides and with three sharp bony protrusions that stick out forward at the tip of its tail that can easily impale a full-grown man with ease. The osteoderms on its beck grew into three rows of bony plates that resembled that of a Stegosaurus. The coloration of its body resembled that of a Nile crocodile: olive-green skin, tapered with black spots on the back, and yellowish green on its barrel-chest and muscled abdomen. Huge scars littered its chest and abdomen and there were notable scars on its face including one vertically slashed across the eye and some slashed diagonally on some places of its jaws. Some scars were present on its hands too. All of them were shallow thanks to the tough scaly hide protecting the entire body.

Strangely enough, the crocodile wore some clothes albeit worn and torn in some parts. For its outfit, the crocodile wore a partially buttoned rattlesnake skin vest and it wore a bone necklace composed of croc teeth and a bird skull in the middle. It also wore a rust-colored leather belt adorned with scale-like patterns and it accompanied the worn-out and tattered blue jeans. Its partial battle outfit only consisted of armor plates that were made out of steel, leather, the bones and skulls of various monsters that the croc killed on its hunts and were later crafted together by expert craftsmen to create a simple yet ornate network of armor. They cover only its shoulders, forearms, legs, thigh, and the end of its tail with reinforced bracings of the spikes that could spear a full-grown man with ease. Both of its shoulders were protected by steel shoulder plates that went well with vest, forming a unique battle vest of sorts. Only its right shoulder plate bore curved sharp spines. Forearm armored braces consisted of leather on the inside with the bony material on the outside protecting its arms from harm. Speaking of the forearms, the cestuses seen on the croc's hands were known as Gator Dragon Claw Cestus; deadly melee weapons that consisted of synthesized "Alligator" silver scales, laminar plates armed with sharp metal spikes, and the cestuses end in three long, obsidian claws that resembled dragon claws. The unique feature about this was that the croc could retract the claws when it needed to hold something else or when it just wanted to use its own scaly fists or claws.

The anthropomorphic croc also wielded a spiked mace club that dwarfed a normal one by two times in its attached pocket at the side of its belt. On its left, the croc kept a long axe that had a long black handle equipped with a serrated axe blade decorated with yellow marks that resembled croc teeth. However, what's even more terrifying was that the towering reptile carried an enormous gun in a leathery bag strapped onto some space of its armored back and the gun specifically was a Savage Shotgun-Rifle Combo.

The reptile was carrying a dry bag and when he opened it, the beast got out its hat, dry and protected from the water thanks to the bag. The hat in particular was a huge black Southern country cowboy hat with a wide brim and a brown band at the base. The band was ornamented with orange beads and a ruby encased in a golden casing in the middle of the hat band. The croc put the hat onto its horned head and stood tall over all the thugs and the awestruck Fairy Tail mages. The boss thug trembled in fear and terror as he recognized the figure as Rex the Crocodile, a brutal former Dark Mage that destroyed his own dark guild when he grew tired of being mistreated and abused as a mere animal.

"That's Rex!" one of the robbers shouted in realization.

"No kidding! He's the one who killed Robbie and there is no mistaking the way he mauled him," another robber said.

"The croc's enormous!"

The robbers were backing away from the croc and muttering amongst themselves of what they should do; either try to attack Rex or run.

Then some thug foolish enough yelled at the top of his lungs and charged at the titanic bipedal reptile with his sword unsheathed, only to be flattened into a bloody mess on the ground by Rex when he slammed his spiked mace club with just his right hand. The ground shook from the force of the club. The robbers had seen enough and knew that the fight was lost, so they ran as fast their legs could carry.

Natsu, Lucy, Taurus, and Happy were still at the same spot since this all started and watched everything unfold in front of them. The wizards were wary of the reptilian stranger because they weren't sure of what the croc's going to do with them. They didn't lower their guard, but they didn't attack the croc either. Tension filled the air between Rex and Team Natsu. After minutes of a staring showdown, Rex broke the silence when he showed his massive toothy grin and opened his mouth and said calmly in a rumbling baritone voice that had a Southern drawl to it,

"Hey c'mon, relax yous'alf. I ain't going to attack yah since me just saved y'all from those no-good pesky varmints and showed them my gumbo."

"The crocodile can talk?!" Lucy yelled in surprise.

"You betcha, blonde missy," Rex said, being amused by the startled reactions from the mages, "And y'all welcome, that be plentifully pitiful, sneaky rat of a hoodlum was about to backstab yah with poison like a viper."

"Oh. You mean the bad guy that you just mauled into the water?" Lucy asked with a sheepish expression, to which Rex nodded. Natsu and Happy looked relieved that Rex attacked the bandit instead of Lucy. The crocodile wouldn't know Taurus' expression because he soon disappeared after the fight was over.

"Yeah. Very sorry about that for freakin' your soft heart out with all the snarling, growling, roaring, clawing of blood of battle. That's just how my folks raised me. Ma, Pap, Uncle, my rowdy, trigger happy relatives, and including good ole Gran' Pappy," Rex replied nostalgically.

"Its fine, dude and it's a relief you stopped the bandit in the nick of time. Lucy is our friend and you just saved her life, Mr. Crocodile," the pink-haired Dragon Slayer said, "Thanks for the save. I'm Natsu Dragneel and the cat here is Happy. What's your name, big guy?"

"Well like what those thieving punks said, they call me on mah first name basis, 'Rex the Croc'. But that ain't the whole of it. If y'all itching to know mah real name, Rex Atticus is the name, I guarantee," the croc said as he bent down his gigantic body forward to Natsu and delicately shook his hand with his own massive hands in a greeting, "yah name's Natsu, huh? I've heard plenty stories about y'all exploits and let me tell you something, son. Meeting yah tumbles all those tales and rumors short when I see the legend to be true, you betcha. Nice to meet yah, kid and you can just call me Rex. Mr. Crocodile makes me sound ole and frail."

"Oh shit! I almost forgot!" Lucy shouted with her eyes widening in horror as she and the whole team forgot about the mission, "Our bandits ran away when you, Rex scared them off unexpectedly. We were supposed to bring them back into custody for their crimes and we can't present these dead, bloodied bodies to the client! Those bandits are still on the loose and he won't give us our reward money." Lucy's eyes was streaming out tears in a rather comical fashion as she wanted the money to pay for her monthly rent of the apartment she was living in Magnolia.

"Oops!" Natsu and Happy sweatdropped in realization that they just lost the opportunity to beat more daylights out of the bandits and earn the reward money.

"Oh dear! I am very plenty sorry about that, you betcha. I didn't know that you were trying to catch those muskrat bandits for a mission, gumbo. I've gotten carried away with mah anger and killed yah oppahtun'ty to earn your buck. Mah apologies," Rex apologized as he facepalmed himself.

"Nah! It's okay. This wasn't a big deal of a mission and the reward money is not that much. There are other missions with bigger rewards to choose from. Besides, you were only acting on what you felt it is the right thing to do and I have no prob with that, man," Natsu replied calmly to comfort the crocodile.

"Don't sweat about it, Rex. Lucy's only making a big fuss about it because she is bossy and greedy when it comes to money," Happy commented with a snicker on his face.

Upon hearing the Exceed's rude comments, Lucy immediately collided her fist with Happy's head, slamming him into the ground with a big swelling lump on his head. "Shut up, Happy!"

Then Natsu decided to ask the crocodile some questions.

"Hey, Rex! I want to ask you something," Natsu said to Rex in curiosity.

"Sure! Shoot me a question," Rex replied as he lifted his hat up a bit.

"Do you perform magic spells?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, mah lad, I guarantee" Rex answered to the young man.

"Wow! I…I mean…it's quite a surprise. I never expected someone that is all… like, you know… gigantic to cast magic," Lucy stuttered as she struggled to find the right words.

"I understand yah sentiments, m'lady. It's not every day yah see a tall, walking croc performing on the same level as yah humans do. And in case, y'all are wondering, I'm not just a warrior, I am a well-to-do wizard as well, I guarantee." Rex responded as he summoned a fireball in his right claw.

"That's so cool! What magic is that? Fire Magic?" Natsu asked with eyes widened in childlike wonder.

Rex smiled at Natsu's guess of his magic spells and he said,

"Close, son. It is Fire Magic, but mine is special, you betcha. Its fire is spicier than normal Fire Magic except for yah Fire, the Fire Dragon Slaying magic," Rex said as he brought the fireball closer for the pink-haired mage to inspect it. Natsu then smelled it and his nose picked up a scent it had never encountered before.

"Your fire…it has the unique scent of cypress, the type of trees that are found mostly in swamps," Natsu commented.

"Yah got that right, Dragon Slayer. This Fire Magic of mine carries the scent of the tropical swamps that I called home," Rex replied looking at the fireball in his own hand, "its name is **Swamp Fire Magic**."

"**Swamp Fire Magic?**" Lucy asked with her curiosity piqued.

"You betcha, gal. This fire carries the scent of swamps, tropical weather hotter than a baker's oven, and exotic spices," the croc said while bouncing the fireball in his hand, "Quite a gumbo don't you think?"

"I don't know about this 'gumbo' you keep saying, but I agree that it looks cool and kinda appetizing." Natsu said mesmerized by the bouncing fireball.

"Eehh? Why do you want to eat…?" Rex raised one of his scaly eyebrows in brief confusion until he realized something about Natsu's magic, "Oh yeahh! That's right, how could a good ole hunter like me forget about one little itty bitty thing about Dragon Slayers. They eat the element of their magic!"

"That's correct! Natsu is a Fire Dragon Slayer. He eats the flames to replenish his magic and he is the strongest when he's literally on fire in his Dragon Force," Happy said proudly about his best friend as if he was the champ of the entire world.

"Ge-gar-gar-gar-har-har! Maybe me Rex can lend you me fireball for a tasty sample, how about that?"

"Go for it!" Natsu said.

Rex threw his fireball at Natsu as he caught the thing in his mouth and swallowed it like it was a delectable food item in one gulp. Natsu wiped his mouth and commented,

"Dang! This fire is spicier than normal flames and certainly has a punch to it. Delicious!"

"Gehahahaha! You Dragon Slayers are full of surprises, you betcha," Rex chuckled humorlessly.

The crocodile then smiled as he gazed his sight on the flying Exceed that had the swordfish in its paws.

"Same with yah, kitten. Yah did mighty good out there with yah fish, whacking all those rotten troublemakahs like it was nobody's business. You surprised me back there when I was watching the whole braw'hl from afar, gumbo. I haven't come across a critter like you before. Tell me something, cat. Yah love fish that much?" Rex asked.

"Oh yeah! In fact, fish is my life, Rex. I always think about fish, even when I'm fighting!" Happy said with jubilee.

"Ge-gar-gar-gar-gar-har-har-har! Yah know, kitty cat! I spent most of mah days in the rivers and lakes trying to catch fish. Slippery bastards aren't they?" the blue cat nodded in response to Rex as he said more, "Tricky for a while, but once you catch them, it's worth a shot and it's better to do it with y'all own bare hands than with some lousy fishing rod, which denies the thrill of wrestling with some big boys like a giant catfish. And believe me, I do that for a livin', I guarantee."

"Aye, sir! I can see that with your size and how you easily handled those bandits." Happy yelled.

"Aye, indeed, little one!" Rex said with his toothy grin as he gently rubbed the cat by the head. Happy purred in surprise of the gentleness of this giant despite the sharp-looking talons of his scaly hands.

"So wait, you said you were watching us fight the bandits the entire time? Where were you when we were kicking their butts?" Lucy questioned.

"I was resting by the other side of the lake over there where there was a slow stream by those woods," Rex stated as he pointed his talon at where he was previously, "I was hungry as a whale back then and I needed to have something to kill. So I was about to look for a deer, a boar, or something to sink me fangs onto when you and your friends were causin' quite a ruckus with those flea-bitten bandits. I was curious enough to take a look at what you're doing and here you were; Natsu breathing fire on the varmints, Happy flying and swinging that big ole swordfish around like a ticked off buzzard, and you herding yah cow through the wolves. And that's when I saw that good-for-nothing snake in the hood trying to bite yah in the ass. Y'all know the story aftahwards." Rex gestured to the direction the bandits fled from him.

"And speakin' of which, can you please tell where poor me Rex is exactly?" Rex asked as he scratched his head.

Natsu and the others realized that this reptile was a stranger to their land. Lucy was the first to answer the crocodile's question.

"You're in the country of Fiore. Where are you from?" Lucy said.

For a second, Rex examined the humans and the cat in front of them and debated internally in his thought process whether he should tell them why he came here or hold off the details until he could earn their trust enough to share his secret personal stuff when the time was right. So he went with the latter.

"I came from the swamps in a land very far from here and I've gotten lost. I don't know nothing about this place 'cuz I just got here." That part was true enough.

"So what is the name of your home?" Natsu asked.

"Ca Elum," the croc said to the pink-haired man.

"Never heard of the place," Happy stated straightforwardly.

"Me neither. I only heard rumors about what's in the islands. That's just it," Natsu shrugged as he didn't pay attention to gossip and talks with his focus mainly on finding Igneel or getting into a brawl.

"I remember hearing that the only places that we can even get close to landing on Ca Elum are some small sea ports or villages owned by fishermen or merchants, but those places are isolated and kept under strict watch by the natives there. Unfortunately, nobody knows much about them apart from the Lizardmen guards that survey the seaports and don't allow humans to venture into Ca Elum. What's inland of those islands is pretty much conjecture or written off as scary rumors," Lucy recalled, rubbing her chin.

"Gehehehehe. Mah folks and kinsmen are really secretive about our lives, that's for sure. I would'a love to tell you about the secrets since they're not here and being all stuffy and huffy paranoid, but place here ain't safe, gumbo."

"Oh ho no-no, predators lurking here in the forests. Ears hear this and that. Intruding eyes here and there watching. Let's find some better ground where it is safer and not so much eavesdroppin', I guarantee," Rex gestured with his hands that basically said 'let's get out of here'.

Natsu and Lucy looked to each other and then to the croc, which after that they nodded in agreement with Rex. Team Natsu joined up with the anthropomorphic crocodile away from the lake.

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In the sky above, a shadowed figure of the bird was flying with the sun shining. The bird remained unseen at such high altitudes where no one could see it coming. After the humans, the cat, and its intended target, the hulking crocodile were leaving the exposed spot of the lake shoreline, the bird quietly flew down and then hovered to land on a high, overbearing branch of a nearby tree. The bird, in question, had a downy coat of blackish, brown feathers and its head, neck, and tail feathers are white. The color of its beak and talons are yellow with the bird's eyes also being gold yellow in their color. This creature was a larger than average-sized bald eagle that perched high on the tree overlooking the lake and the carnage that already concluded minutes before. With its sharp keen eyesight, the eagle's eyes zeroed in on the crocodile and the unusual group of mages with striking precision and accurate vision. The eagle furrowed its eyes to the point that they were slanted to show its furious indignation of it was seeing.

Unknown to the anthro-crocodile and the young Fairy Tail mages, they were being watched by the eagle and it was emitting a faint golden aura that released a bit of magical pressure that was still undetected as they left the area to indicate that it was indeed angry. The bird had found and followed its prey for a while and it was plotting something against the reptile for reasons still yet to be explained. Now seeing this development, it needed to observe Rex and the humans and the flying Exceed that he was travelling with to wait and see how it all turns out. Then it would look for a perfect opening to strike the crocodile when he least expected it to claim its revenge.

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**End of Chapter 1**

**Chapter Notes:**

**I am having a writer's block on my previous fanfic. So I wanted to create a new story based on one of the OC's from my previous fanfic and develop him even further and hopefully make improvements on my writing as I discover more about the characters. This is a bit of AU, but mostly I am going to try stay true to the Fairy Tail series while putting my own flair to it. **

**Anyway, this is somewhere before the Everlue Arc. So it would still be early in the series. **

**Constructive criticism and feedback will be greatly appreciated. However, flames, AKA, hate-filled/spamming reviews and outright hatred of the story, **_**WILL**_** be reported and/or removed, regardless whether they are signed on or not.**

**Please Read and Review.**

**See ya later!**


	2. Rex Atticus the Crocodile's Bio

**Rex the Crocodile (Redesign)**

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_**Fairy Tail © Hiro Mashima and Weekly Shonen Magazine**_

_**I only own my OCs, Rex Atticus the Crocodile and Aetos Abraham Theocedric**_

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Name: Rex

Species: Anthropomorphic Nile crocodile

Height and Length: 17 feet tall and 36 feet long

Magic Spells: Crash Magic, Swamp Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Unlimited Primal Rage, (**Second Origin Spells: Draconic Tyrant Claw Cestus, Leviathan's Wrath, Crashing Juggernaut of Earth) **

Weapon(s): Gator Dragon Claw Cestus (synthesized "Alligator" silver scales, laminar plates armed with sharp metal spikes, and the cestuses end in three obsidian claws that resemble dragon claws), Reinforced Skeletal Tail Spikes, Spiked Mace Club, Long-Pole Axe, and a Shotgun-Rifle Combo

**Appearance:**

Around 17 feet tall and 36 feet in length. Massive in width and girth as well he is enormous in height. His body is all pure muscle, bone, and thick, rugged scales. He has a heavily muscled chest, thick shoulders and massive arms that are studded with bony obsidian spurs that increase in size from the base of the wrists to the elbows and each of the elbows are armed with a large protruding spike. His enormous hands are armed with five huge, black claws. He has massive neck muscles that make him vaguely resemble a cobra and his head has scale-like horns at the back of the head and it is tapered with a long, toothy snout reinforced by strong, large jaw muscles at the lower mandibles. He has green eyes. The head is smaller in proportion to the rest of his body than a normal crocodile. His legs and feet are vaguely bird-like in appearance with four toes. The legs are slightly longer than the arms. Rex possesses a long, thick muscular tail that is typical of all crocodiles except that it is armed with thagomizer-like spikes protruding outward from the sides and with three sharp bony protrusions that stick out forward at the tip of its tail that can easily impale a full-grown man with ease. the osteoderms on his beck have grown into three rows of bony plates that resemble that of a Stegosaurus. The coloration of his body resembles that of a Nile crocodile: olive-green skin, tapered with black spots on the back, and yellowish green on his barrel-chest and muscled abdomen.

For his outfit, Rex wears a huge black Southern country cowboy hat with a wide brim and a brown band at the base. The band is ornamented with orange beads and a ruby encased in a golden casing in the middle of the hat band. The crocodile wears a partially buttoned rattlesnake skin vest. He wears a rust-colored leather belt adorned with scale-like patterns and it accompanies the worn-out and tattered blue jeans. His partial battle outfit only consist of armor plates that are made out of steel, leather, the bones and skulls of various monsters that he killed on his hunts and were later crafted together by expert craftsmen to create a simple yet ornate network of armor. They cover only his shoulders, forearms, legs, thigh, and the end of his tail with reinforced braces on the spikes that could spear a full-grown man with ease. Both of his shoulders are protected by steel shoulder plates that go well with vest, forming a unique battle vest of sorts. Only his right shoulder plate bear curved sharp spines. Forearm armored braces consist of leather on the inside with the bony material on the outside protecting his arms from harm.

When he enters into Unlimited Primal Rage, his reptilian appearance changes drastically. He grows up to 22 feet tall and his length increases to 45 feet long. His muscles bulk up considerably, making him more massive and gigantic. The plates on his back grow bigger and more curved, his fangs become even longer and sharper as well as his claws, and his tail increases in length. Also his battle armor becomes even tougher, more rugged and more menacing in appearance. Then finally his eyes change from green to red-orange and his eyes malevolently glow in red to indicate his overwhelming rage and bloodlust. His body emits excessive amount of magic that come in an ominous red-purple steam cloud/aura that coats his enhanced body. At this state, he gains enhanced durability, strength, smell, and speed to manhandle his opponents with terrifying ease. His body undergoes through the five stages of Dark Evolution that involves physical and psychological changes that come with heavy costs of slowly losing his soul, his sanity, and his humanity to the beast demon inside of him waiting to burst out to unleash its destruction on the world.

**Personality****:**

Apparently laidback and easygoing, despite his terrifying, monstrous appearance. When not in battle, he is surprisingly friendly and gentle towards those who don't harbor any malice, ill-intent, or harm against him. He'd be sitting down and playing with a huge banjo of his about his favorite folk songs of his island home, or cooking his self-made spicy chicken-sausage gumbo. However, he shares Natsu's tendencies for brawls and would be sometimes found brawling with other members of Fairy Tail. Despite his laidback personality, he is truly devoted to his friends and overprotective to the point that he would sacrifice his own life to protect them from harm.

When undergoing a mission or a hunt, his easygoing personality suddenly vanishes and is replaced with an intensely serious and focused personality. He no longer tolerates foolhardy, brash, and stupid actions and decisions from his teammates that could ruin the thrill of the hunt. While most of the time Unlike Erza, he bears more patience for people that need more time to answer questions, although he would have moments of impatience when he is tested to the limits too much. When extremely angered or pushed into a tight corner, the croc would go all-out berserk and turn into a destructive force of nature on the battlefield. And if any bad guy dared to hurt or exploit his teammates' weaknesses, they will have an extremely dangerous predator hunting them down to exact his vengeance on them and if he can't catch them, Rex will hold long-term grudges against them. However, it is a double-edged sword as it can harm both his enemies and even his allies to some extent. Unfortunately, when it comes to protecting his friends from harm, he sometimes gets carried away with that because he would do _anything_ to fulfill that goal, even if that meant disobeying orders and using questionable means to protect them or to turn the situation around in his favor.

However, underneath his soul, there lurks another side of him that is more sinister and demonic in nature. The spiritual invasion of the beast demon and the excessive dark magic that came with the acquiring of the Unlimited Primal Rage spell mixed in with the Etherano stores inside of him have both created a darker and primal alter ego that takes over when Rex is under extremely stressful situations or depression. While he is far from being a dumb brute, the rituals made it extremely difficult for him to think rationally. His prominent rage issues have become so severe and intense that an extremely stressful event or traumatic memory can trigger his transformation under Unlimited Primal Rage. The longer he stays in that state, the more it is difficult for him to change back to normal as his bestial instincts become more dominant. If he stays too long in that state, he loses all of his humanity completely, his bestial instincts take over, and he becomes nothing more than a bloodthirsty, mindless monster. This becomes more apparent when he undergoes metamorphosis in every of the five stages of Dark Evolution that turns him more and more into the beast demon inhabiting inside of him. At the final stage, it would be almost impossible to control the beast inside of him and to force himself to change back into his normal form. However, it is not always guaranteed that any recall of a traumatic event or breaking the limits of his wrath would trigger the next stage of Dark Evolution, despite it being the catalyst of undergoing to his immediate Berserker state in Unlimited Primal Rage. There's no certainty to the number of times he uses that spell would trigger his next transformation. What's even worse is that it is unknown how it would affect his ability to cast his other types of magic, including his Second Origins spells, if he needed them in a pinch.

As such, Unlimited Primal Rage is not a spell that should be taken lightly. Rex wants it to be his last resort since he fears its demonic power and how it could degrade his mentality and heart to the point he could no longer distinguish between friend and foe. The consequences of using that spell at its final stage would be a costly price that might prove too much for himself and his friends to pay for.

**History****:**

He came from a dominant tribal group of anthropomorphic crocodiles that ruled above all the others in the swampy, tropical regions of Caelum. His tribe practiced black magic arts and other magic spells that are poorly known or unknown at all to the outside world. However, sometime later, the regions were devastated by a civil war amongst the Dinosaurian clans, tribal crocodilian groups, Lizardmen tribes, Nagas, the Kappa, and the Pterosaur Tengu clans during a severe dry season as food sources were rapidly depleted by too many hungry mouths to feed. Rex's tribe was losing along with their allies against his enemies until he underwent shamanistic trials that augmented his physical prowess, magic power, and size. However, the rituals and their side effects cost him his intelligence and most of his sanity. Then in the process of being granted the extremely dangerous spell, a beast demon invaded his body and started to change the crocodile from the inside out, signifying that his body was going through its introductory phase out of the five phases of Dark Evolution. He did kill a majority of his enemies, but what happened next tore his world apart when he unknowingly killed his own best friend and his family in his Berserker state, which scarred and damaged his soul with deep wounds he can never fully recover from.

Traumatized and horrified, he ran away on a boat to a country called Minstrel, hoping to start anew in this new country and run away from his horrible past. However, fate was not kind to him as a group of Wizard Hunters captured Rex and took him to a black market as a slave. They sold him to a guild master of a dark guild situated in Bosco. He was forced to accept membership/slavery as part of a Dark Guild and he became a dark mage since then.

He underwent shady jobs of assassination and other illegal guild activities for money and became known as a 'horrifying monster' to the good side of the law. He may have been in a place to earn a living, but his heart is still broken and empty with all the guilt racked in his soul. To make matters worse, he is treated more like an animal or just a weapon of mass destruction than an actual mage. The living conditions of his space provided by the dark guild master that were unsanitary and filthy didn't help matters either.

After years of putting up with horrible abuse and mistreatment, he had enough. He attempted to escape the guild, but when the evil guild master caught him red-handed, he fought back against the legions of dark wizards sent to subdue him. After long periods of struggle, he finally snapped under their cruelty and unleashed his Unlimited Primal Rage and wrecked the entire guild to shambles, not before killing the guild master. He ran away once again and since then, he traveled west through Bosco avoiding contact with civilization as much as possible until he reached Fiore. All he wanted is to be accepted into a group and be loved for who he really is and not be hated and looked down upon for his past sins, which hasn't happened yet. His hope that he would find a group of people that were more compassionate and understanding of the personal issues he's facing right now as a broken creature on the run from the law and hating his former life of a dark mage. All he really ever wanted is... redemption and forgiveness.

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**Constructive criticism and feedback will be greatly appreciated. However, flames, AKA, hate-filled/spamming reviews and outright hatred of the story, **_**WILL**_** be reported and/or removed, regardless whether they are signed on or not.**

**Please Read and Review.**

**See ya later!**


End file.
